Ugo Rondinone in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen | Rotterdam

Ugo Rondinone in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen | Rotterdam

Ugo Rondinone | Vocabulary of Solitude
February 13–May 29, 2016 
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam |The Netherlands

 

Ugo Rondinone, Vocabulary of solitude. sleep, 2014. 

Clown costume, masker, live performance. Collection of the artist. 

photocredit:  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

This spring the magical world of artist Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964, Switzerland, lives and works in New York) will be present at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, during the Art Rotterdam Week. The artist will bring together new and existing works in a large installation like a colour spectrum revealing the various facets of existence. Forty-five life-size clown sculptures will form the centrepiece of Vocabulary of Solitude, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands.

On the floor of the 1500m2 Bodon Galleries visitors will see forty-five life-size sculptures of passive and contemplative clowns, each named after an everyday activity: dream, sleep, yawn, read, cook. Together they describe by artist a person’s solitary day at home. The clown sculptures have never previously been exhibited and will be transported directly to Rotterdam from Rondinone’s studio in New York.

 

 Ugo Rondinone, vierzehnterseptemberzweitausendundfünfzehn, 2015. 

Acryl on canvas, 520 x 270 cm. Collection of the artist

 photocredit:  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Rainbows is an installation includes half mandala paintings created with an airbrush technique. The optical effect of the large rainbow bands of colour makes them dance before your eyes. The large window of the Bodon Galleries will be covered with a filter in all the colours of the rainbow, creating an intense colourful glow throughout the garden gallery. The rainbow theme continues in thousands of drawings by children: young artists who have responded to the artist’s request for help in creating a 4 x 30 metre wall of rainbow drawings.

 

 Ugo Rondinone, The Eighteenth Hour of the Poem, 2007. 

Wax and pigments, 140 x 82 x 82 cm. Artist's collection.

  photocredit:  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Ugo Rondinone -  one of the world’s leading visual artists, has an Italian origin , born in Brunnen, Switzerland in 1964, currenty based in New York since 1998. He studied at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunstin in Vienna. Earlier on in his career  Rondinone has collaborated  with Austrian performance artist Hermann Nitsch. He came to international attention during the 1990s with his installations by sculpture, painting, video, sound and photography. Rondinone represented Switzerland at the 52th Venice Biennale in 2007. He has been the curator of the exhibitions The Third Mind at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2007) and The Spirit Level at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York (2012). He had major solo exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Kunsthalle Wien , Palais Tokyo, Museum Leuven in Belgium . The work of Ugo Rondinone is represented by Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zürich), Barbara Gladstone Gallery (New York – Brussels), Galerie Almine Rech (Paris – Brussels), Sadie Coles HQ (London) and Galerie Esther Schipper (Berlin).

 

 Ugo Rondinone, Still. Life, 2013. 

Bronze, and lead paint, 12.5 x 14 x 12.5 cm. Artist's collection

  photocredit:  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Ugo Rondinone : “Good art revolutionizes your whole being. It is something that stops you, or slows you down.”


practical info:
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 18-20
3015 CX Rotterdam
The Netherlands
www.boijmans.nl

THE VALUE OF NOTHING @ TENT | ROTTERDAM

THE VALUE OF NOTHING @ TENT | ROTTERDAM
04.09.2014 - 16.11.2014


On Thursday 4 September, TENT Rotterdam opens The Value of Nothing with five newly commissioned projects, a group exhibition, Fieldwork Residencies, and an in-depth public program in which local and international artists reflect on our current economies and value systems. The Value of Nothing is curated by Jesse van Oosten (TENT) and Michel van Dartel (independent curator, V2_).

The Value of Nothing springs from long-term research initiated by TENT into shifts in thinking about value and economy, and the role that art can play therein. In the aftermath of the global economic crisis increasingly urgent questions arise that are related to neoliberal values seeping into almost every aspect of our lives. In addition to the known financial and economic criteria, can we articulate different ideas about the concept of value? What are other possible forms of economic exchange? And what do these alternatives mean for how value manifests itself?

image:Priscila Fernandes, For a Better World, 2012;

photocredit:TENT,Rotterdam

The Value of Nothing presents artists who contribute to the current debate on the commercialization of society, expose the underlying mechanisms, or propose alternative strategies. They reveal value beyond the mainstream market, like Jeanne van Heeswijk’s project in Rotterdam’s Afrikaanderwijk district, or show that trade in a global economy also means non-monetary cultural exchange, as in Meschac Gaba’s artistic currency exchange bureau. Others, such as Remco Torenbosch, immerse themselves in the beauty and philosophical idea behind the distribution of goods, or like Paolo Cirio, deliver concrete possibilities for dodging tax.

The Value of Nothing brings together artistic practices and projects that reflect our current economies and value systems, or that focus on possible alternatives. Meschac Gaba, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Jonas Lund, Helmut Smits and Remco Torenbosch present newly commissioned works. Gil & Moti, Weronika Zielinska, Roel Roscam Abbing, Kym Ward and Oblique International will each participate in a Fieldwork Residency at a Rotterdam-based company or organization. They will each develop a proposal that deals with the values held or produced by the organisation, such as its hospitality to outsiders, equality on the workfloor, or success criteria. The proposals will be presented in TENT during Fieldwork Friday, on 3 and 24 October. In addition, on 16 October and 13 November, curator and writer Nat Muller organises Breaking the Bank: a two-part event in which academics, journalists, and other practitioners explore how art, value and the global economy are interrelated. In a research project, Erasmus University College students will discuss and explore the exhibition’s topics. The Rotterdam architecture firm ZUS designed objects that serve as a stage for the public program.

Public program
Opening :Thursday 4 September, 17h

Fieldwork Friday 
Friday 3 October, 17h
Artist talks by Roel Roscam Abbing, Gil & Moti, and Kym Ward
With responses by philosopher Karim Benammar, NetExpert, and VS Schoonmaak BV

Breaking the Bank I: Art, Value and the Global Economy
Thursday 16 October, 20h
First of a two-part event led by Nat Muller in which academics, artists and journalists scrutinise the relationships between art, value, and global economy. With, amongst others, writers/artists Alana Jelinek (This is Not Art: Activism and Other 'Not-Art', 2013) and Anna Moreno.

Fieldwork Friday
Friday 24 October, 17h
Artist talks by Weronika Zielinska, Oblique International
With responses by journalist Koen Haegens, Hotel Van Walsum, and Marco Tieleman Coaching

TENT Halloween – a night to remember
Friday 31 October

Breaking the Bank II: Art, Value and the Global Economy
Thursday 13 November, 20h
Second part of the event led by Nat Muller in which academics, artists and journalists scrutinise the relationships between art, value, and global economy. With, amongst others, noted journalist Georgina Adam (Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, 2014)

ARTISTS
MESCHAC GABA// JEANNE VAN HEESWIJK// IRATXE JAIO + KLAAS VAN GORKUM// PRISCILA FERNANDES// HELMUT SMITS// GIL & MOTI// OBLIQUE INTERNATIONAL// KYM WARD// ROEL ROSCAM ABBING// WERONIKA ZIELINSKA// ANTONIA HIRSCH// PAOLO CIRIO// JONAS STAAL// CLAIRE FONTAINE// BILL BALASKAS// REMCO TORENBOSCH// JONAS LUND// ZUS


The Value of Nothing is made possible by: Stichting DOEN, SNS REAAL Fonds, and Mondriaan Fund
Thanks to: NetExpert, Hotel Van Walsum, VS Schoonmaakbedrijf BV, Marco Tieleman Coaching

Along with the The Value of Nothing, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art concurrently opens the exhibition Dai Hanzhi: 5000 Artists. The building remains open until 23:00h.

practical info
TENT Rotterdam
Witte de Withstraat 50
3012BR Rotterdam
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11–18h
T +31104135498
www.tentrotterdam.nl